Patti Smith Saved Me from the Snow!

So. Sick. Of. Snow.

Sheesh!

But I did do an S-ton of reading over this long snowed in weekend/early week!

I soooo enjoyed the memoir by Patti Smith of her lifelong friendship and early romance with Robert Maplethorpe, Just Kids. It was so beautiful and interesting and I just couldn't put it down. It's so nice to read about people who were so creative and different and who you just don't hear much about anymore. Patti's words were like being invited into a secret enclave of the weird and talented. And I have to say, it just felt like a gift she was giving us......the gift of knowing her life and Robert's life. I felt so grateful when I finished the book.

It was also great just to learn more about Patti.....such an enigmatic and prolific person of that particular time and place. Although to hear her tell it, she was just another poet living and creating. I found myself studying the pic of her and her children in my Annie Leibovitz art book and wanting to know more about her life since then.

And then it catapulted me into wanting to learn all I could about NYC during the late 60's to late 70's.......the Chelsea, the Village, the art, CBGB and more. I bought a book on Saturday about Max's Kansas City and felt like I had the perfect primer to accompany Patti's name-dropping. Now I want to read about Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin and more.

E-Roc says I have now entered my NYC phase.

Maybe so. All I know is I can't stop humming "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" by Leonard Cohen as sung by Rufus Wainwright. Aaah, Rufus. Maybe my next phase will be Canadian.......

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